Kenyan police arrest key Daesh suspect

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Kenyan police on Thursday said they had detained a high-profile terrorist suspect with links to Daesh, al-Shabaab and who was a top member of the Magafe human trafficking network in Libya.

In a statement, Kenyan police said Ali Hussein Ali -- AKA the “Trusted One” -- was detained “together with his accomplices Ibrahim Absheikh Mukhtar and Abdi Mohammed Yusuf AKA Dader in Malindi during a joint operation carried out by security agents”.

It is thought he was arrested by anti-terrorist police on Wednesday; Malindi is a coastal town in southeastern Kenya.

Officers said Ali Hussein was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and visited Kenya in 2010 posing as a tourist before moving to South Africa, Sudan and finally Tripoli in Libya where he was recruited by Daesh.

“He came back to Kenya in 2016 where he became a key agent of ISIS [Daesh] and the Magafe human smuggling and financial network in the country,” a Kenya police statement added.

Ali Hussein was detained while demanding $639,000 from his contact after delivering recruits and illegal immigrants to their destination, police said.

He was also accused of facilitating the travel of recruits from Kenya and Somalia to join Daesh in Libya as well as facilitating illegal immigrants’ entry to Europe via Libya.

Somalia-based al-Shabaab fighters have killed hundreds of Kenyans in recent years and have vowed to continue until Kenyan troops are withdrawn from Somalia.